I Am #Blessed

#Blessed

To celebrate our church’s 40th Anniversary (University Baptist Church), our Senior Pastor developed a 40-week sermon series based on the Ten Commandments—covering each commandment for 4 weeks. The Tenth Commandment says, “Thou shalt not covet.” Or as Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message, “No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17). Our Pastor noted that covetousness is checked by contentment and thankfulness. In fact, the way out of covetousness is to learn contentment…which brings us to Thanksgiving 2014.

I am reminded of the old hymn, “Count Your Blessings”, which was written by Johnson Oatman in 1897—based on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which says, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” The refrain of the song says:  Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done!

So, that’s what I’ve done in the following page…tallied my blessings from 2014. And like Alexander’s big brother says in the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, I am #Blessed!

Click here to learn more.

Got Purpose? What’s Your Passion?

Purpose and Passion Pin

Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What is your life purpose? I suspect that many of us put more effort into planning our Thanksgiving vacation than we do in thinking about the destiny of our earthly journey.

Several years back, I took some time to explore my personal “Mission Statement.” As a HR professional, I helped organizations develop their vision and mission statements on several occasions…but the thought never crossed my mind that I should have my own personal mission…

Through a process facilitated by the Franklin Planner’s Mission Statement Builder (which is now an on-line tool available on the FranklinCovey site), I came out with my personal mission – “To be a Leader wherever I am and improve Leadership wherever I go”. Like many mission statements, those words may not seem much to you…but for me, they provide clarity about the types of opportunities I should pursue. More importantly, my personal mission gives me a reason not to pursue some opportunities!

Week 48 of the NIV Leadership Bible focuses on Purpose & Passion—keys to greater leadership.

Click here to learn more.